11/7/06

What I Learned at the 2006 Orlando ASCD Conference

Although I wasn’t at this conference to attend sessions for teachers and administrators, I learned a lot, anyway. My purpose was to talk with the many principals, superintendents and curriculum specialists who visited Word Web Vocabulary’s booth in the trade show Exhibit Hall.

Here’s what I heard: (1) attendees recognized how important the knowledge of Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes is for vocabulary growth (2) a general agreement that Word Web’s Real World Words are important for students of all ages (3) how Word Web’s special graphic symbols greatly enhance the learning experience. Naturally, I was pleased (and, of course agreed) with these observations!

The most fun I had at the conference was stumping all but one visitor to our booth with this question: From what root would you expect “monk” to have originated? This, and many others like it, I call “Cool Connections,” since when I first uncovered the relationship of “monk” to its root, I said, “Now that’s cool!” *Answer below

I was rather distressed, though, when I looked at other publishers’ vocabulary lessons. I couldn’t find any expectation of continuous review, which I consider essential to learning vocabulary. I also noticed few lessons showed how Greek and Latin roots, prefixes or suffixes can help students learn vocabulary. In contrast, Word Web’s 30 lessons in each of its three published volumes build a broad vocabulary base for students, while teaching them how to actually decipher unknown words. Furthermore, students who study Word Web fulfill a quantity of required written vocabulary work, receive lots of review and often, must do research in order to answer a question about a vocabulary word.

As I reviewed materials from various ASCD workshop handouts devoted to increasing students’ reading and literacy skills/levels, I couldn’t help compare their suggestions with the work required by Word Web’s connections to literature, historic events and related words in other languages. Students also seem to find Word Web’s lessons to be more interesting and relevant to each other than many of the vocabulary workshop lessons, which may be why we heard many comments about students enjoying the many relevant graphics.

In the end, my experiences at this conference gave me a wonderful insight: It’s quite clear that the main difference between Word Web Vocabulary and all other programs is that students become immersed, not just exposed to, word study.

*Answer: mono- Greek meaning one. Originally, a monk was a single person who went into the hills or to somewhere solitary to meditate and pray.

That’s my word for this time.
Ellie

Word Web Vocabulary - recommended on Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' website - Moving vocabulary from the edge of language arts to its center